John F. Kennedy on Abortion

Supply funds for international birth control studies

In 1963 Kennedy was asked whether he thought the US should supply funds for international birth control studies. The President replied: "If your question is: Can we do more, should we know more about the whole reproduction cycle, and should this
information be made more available to the world so that everyone can make their own judgment, I would think that it would be a matter which we could certainly support."

Kennedy's statement represented a significant revolution in the attitude of the
American government. He affirmed 2 principles: freedom of research on population matters and freedom of every nation to use the resulting knowledge in determining its own policy. In handling the question this way, he dispelled all doubt, if any remained,
about the capacity of a Catholic President to decide public issues on their merits. Catholic concern seemed now to narrow to the relatively small point--and one on which they received reassurances--that the government should not ship out contraceptives.